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Today, I am happy to be joined by Greg Marco, President of Leading Edge Expositions, which produces the CWCBExpo. The CWCBExpo is a business-to-business trade show event for the legalized cannabis industry and is one of the largest and longest-running cannabis industry trade shows. It is held 3 times each year in New York, Los Angeles, and Boston. We’ll have our own booth on Media Row at this year’s LA conference running September 26-28 so if you’re in the area or maybe thought about being in the area – come by and say hi!
Topics include:
- 5:20 – Greg didn’t start out in the trade show space. Started in marketing and then migrated to running a business research company in qualitative and quantitative data. Through that met the leaders of Leading Edge Expositions, and held a number of roles for them over the past 17 years. Two years ago, they started to focus only on cannabis and Greg came on as an executive and New York’s 2019 conference was his first as President – largest event they’ve ever done in terms of attendance and revenue.
- 10:00 – Process of putting on a cannabis conference given all the regulatory restrictions. So many changes are occurring so frequently. Editorial side and advisory board of Leading Edge are entrenched in the regulatory aspects of hemp and cannabis. New York is on the cusp of legalizing recreational cannabis, while LA is a more mature market and Boston is just getting its legs so all the different needs for content given location and different regulations from state to state need to be managed. Content wise, also have to make quick decisions. For example, vaping right now is a serious issue, but that just popped up recently and has to be addressed.
- 13:47 – Given LA’s maturing market, conference schedule is robust and slightly different than other states. Keynote headliners are Dixie Brands (OTCPK:DXBRF) (Chuck Smith) who just cut a deal with Arizona Iced Tea; Aphria (NYSE:APHA) (Irwin Simon) and Harvest (OTCQX:HRVSF) (Steve White). In New York CWCB had a talk ‘How to start your own cannabis business’; in LA it’s ‘How to grow your cannabis business’ so various elements affect content.
- 17:42 – Given Greg’s background in marketing and given the emphasis on branding in the cannabis space, what does he see as something to look out for? Marketing and branding and delivering on customer service are big because when something grows so fast you have to make sure you’re prepared for a 25 mile marathon not just a 25 yard sprint. Packaging and labelling are huge – companies have to make sure the product elements are clearly defined. Infrastructure and inventory management are key as companies mature and grow. This year’s conference focusing a lot more on ancillary products. Trade show exhibits also show a lot about a company – how creative and well done a booth is, the presentation/branding of employees.
- 21:55 – One of the reasons Greg got into the cannabis space specifically and back into the trade show game was the uniqueness of the product and industry and the tremendous year over year growth. From one year to the next in New York for instance (2018-2019) branding exploded. The size and appearance of the booths, savvy marketing and advertising has expanded greatly in the industry.
- 25:10 – Capital coming into the industry – evident from NY’s conference this year. Wall Street and investment community came in droves to see what’s new and improved. Executives from other industries are surprised by how professional the cannabis industry has become.
- 29:00 – Before the New York conference in June, many people thought New Jersey would go legal but then it didn’t. Greg sees it being just a matter of time – a few hiccups prevented it from going through this time, but it’s a new industry and policies have to be sustainable for long-term viability.
- 30:20 – Greg’s vision for the future of the industry; what will the 2020 CWCBExpo look like? M&A from outside the sector won’t really explode until cannabis is legal at the federal level. Prior to that, and we’re seeing it now, there’s jockeying for position. But now it’s on a regional basis. West Coast is already there and the Northeast market will be the hottest market over the next few years. CWCBExpo is the largest show in New York so they’re in a good position to see the development. Big announcement coming up for 2020 New York show this Fall.
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